Adoption of green supply chain management practices through collaboration approach in developing countries – From literature review to conceptual framework

Abstract

In recent years, environmental regulatory bodies and researchers have raised their concerns about the relationship between foreign corporations and environmental problems in developing countries. Foreign corporations possess the dynamic capabilities to improve the environment of developing countries through adoption of Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) practices and collaborating with governments and domestic firms to further reduce the environmental footprint. In this context, three strands of GSCM literature have been critically analysed for this paper. Firstly, drivers and pressures for the adoption of GSCM were studied and three high priority drivers were selected for the conceptual model namely government regulations, customer demands and supplier performance. Secondly, the GSCM practices and their adoption benefits relevant to the developing countries were reviewed resulting in selection of four promising practices; eco-design, green purchasing, green manufacturing and reverse logistics. After that, the literature was reviewed on application of management theories in GSCM to testify the theoretical implications of the model. Finally, the conceptual model is presented that coincides with the systems, institutional and diffusion of innovation theories and purposes high degree of collaborations among foreign and domestic firms, governments, customers and suppliers. Hence, this study adds to the existing literature on GSCM adoption by identifying the base practices and drivers exclusive to the developing countries. It also purposes a collaboration mechanism in a novel conceptual framework to integrate the foreign and domestic firms under common agenda of improving the environment. In future, the theoretical model will be tested empirically to develop a practical model for industrial zones in developing countries.